Innovation & Creative

Thinking

• Fosbury Flop video

Creative Thinking is the generation of new ideas

Innovation is the exploitation of new ideas

Innovation at work can change a process, product or service so that it:

- Does something differently

- Does something better

- Does something new

What is Innovation?

Innovation can be…

HugeRadical Disruptive:- the invention of the web- the iPhone- introduction of liquid capsule washing powder

SmallIncrementalContinuous Improvement (Kaizen)- in just the way the web is used- iPhone 5- ‘Better, brighter, whiter’

7) Review / Debrief

Innov8 Model

1) Identify Need / Insight

2) Investigate / Research

5) Junction6) Trial if

appropriate8) Launch / Marketing

4) Build / Analyse

3) Idea generation

What sport do these people play?

Our Amazing Brains!

BETA – Busy, busy, busy: here and now. Purely conscious

ALPHA – More relaxed. The door is ajar to the subconscious

THETA – REM in sleep & meditation. Equal flow between conscious & subconscious

DELTA – Deep sleep. Pure sub-conscious

At work?

In the shower?

When are you most Innovative?

Not...

So….

At work!

Left Brain / Right Brain

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONSUses logicDetail orientedFacts ruleWords and languagePresent and PastMaths and ScienceAnalyticalAcknowledgesOrder/pattern perceptionKnows object nameReality basedForms strategiesPracticalSafe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

• Spinning dancer video

7 Principles of Innovation

1. Stay Fresh (or go Stale)

Change your routines

Look at things with new eyes

Ask questions… What if?

Example: Plan a monthly lunch with another team, share issues &

solutions

Example: Deliberately read or watch something you wouldn’t normally

choose to

2. Use Stimulus (or get Stuck in a Rut)

Use Stimulus Tools – more later

Use customers – focus groups, interviews, quotes

Watch end users – where are the sticking points?

Go scouting – competitors, partners, related worlds

Bring physical things to meetings / brainstorms

Read and surf and blog

Sign up to RSS feeds, Trendspotting & Springwise free updates…

3. Greenhouse Ideas (or Trample Them)

New ideas are fragile and easily killed

Know your flowers from your weeds – let seedlings grow – and then judge

Nurture and nourish new ideas, let them take root

Think of SUN…

S – Suspend analysis / judgment

U – Understand the idea & where it came from

N – Nurture it

Stay away from ER mentality – rapid fire analysis

4. Make it Real (or Keep it Nebulous)

Turn it from a concept to a tangible thing

Touch and excite people with realness

Just do it! Trial it - make a prototype (Dyson made 5127)

Test it, play with it, talk about it, use it, share it

Try it out, even if it is only 60% there. Involve others

Don’t be a perfectionist

Example: Innocent Drinks and Van den Burgh kitchens

5. Keep up Momentum (or let it Limp On)

Like children – that spontaneous, all consuming, intense thing they do at play

Believe in it

Manage it and the people working on it

Create energy, focus and motivation for it

Example: Instead of swapping emails, let’s meet now and talk

Example: Don’t write me a report - what’s your gut instinct?

Example: Let’s divide up the task and crack it between us

6. Signal What You are Doing (or get Shot at)

Help people ‘tune in’ by signalling what state of mind you want them to be in

Help others to listen and understand your ideas and suspend their judgement

Example: ‘Now, I haven’t thought this through yet, and you may not like it initially, but I was wondering if we could…’.

Example: Microsoft HQ is called a ‘Campus’

7. Have Courage (or Wimp out)

The big one!

Individuals, teams and organisations need courage to Innovate

Courage & Innovation go hand in hand

Have the courage to say it, do it, make it happen, support it

Be convicted. Have faith

Find your positive supporters

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps (David Lloyd George)

Rules for ‘Brainstorming’?

Be clear with your objective – make it sexy!

Make sure you evaluate at the end

5 – 8 people max.

1. Quantity not quality (no filtering)

2. There’s no such thing as a bad idea (no judging)

3. Be positive and open-minded

4. Build on each other’s ideas – “Yes! And we could…”

No Tool, could use stimulusAllow ideas out – dumping ideas already in people’s headsUse rules of brainstorming to manage

Two methods:Individuals personally writing their thoughts down in quiet timeThen share one at a time & buildThen analyse

OR all say ideas out loud & buildThen analyse

1) Free-flow Brainstorming

Forcing links between the objective of the brainstorm and random items

Use stimulus nothing to do with the brief

Use: pictures, words, sounds, smells, places, objects, scrabble letters, environments, senses, etc.

NB: Some random stimuli are ‘richer’ than others

I quite often take in a bag of mixed pictures & words and get each person to dip in one at a time. Everyone then uses that word or picture before moving on. Very easy, very effective

2) Random Links

List the unwritten rules, dogmas, norms, orthodoxies, etc. Ignore or break the rulesAnything goesTake ‘X’

What if it was reversed? What if the whole world took part?

What if there was a budget of £10m? What if it was free?

List assumptions and challenge each one. e.g. Shampoo = a liquid- What if it were a solid? A mousse? A cream?

3) Revolution

4) Related Worlds

Finding an alternative but similar issue or benefit in another field

Where has this same challenge cropped up before?

What can you borrow and learn from it?

E.g. Ball point pen v Roll-on deodorant, Velcro, Cats Eyes...

Analysing Ideas

End of brainstorm, move from open to closed (analytical) minds

Decide who gets involved in analysing – everyone or selected people?

Involve stakeholders and those impacted for buy-in

Passion-o-meter – good for all

Sticky dots / Initials voting

Use judging criteria – pre-set ideally

Gut feel

Value-add to end user

Cost of time, effort & money v result

Answer the brief

Fit with vision, strategy, values, etc.

Put ‘flesh on the bones’ to see if the idea has ‘legs’!Use a template: Give it a working title, describe it in a few sentences, bullet point the conceptTwitter it in 140 charactersBrainstorm it againCreate a poster, an advert, a newspaper reportSell it internallyPhysically make a prototypeModel or draw it...

Build

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